Setting up and Running the Linux PPTP Server v0.7.38

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CONTENTS

Compiling
Launching the PPTP Server
Launching a PPTP Linux client
Launching a PPTP Windows NT client
Processes
Debugging


Compiling

Before compiling the Linux PPTP Server you may want to consider some changes:
  • Check out "debug.h" if you want to enable/disable debugging;
  • "pppdefs.h" defines your PPPD binary (near the end of the file) to be in /usr/sbin/pppd which you may need to change.
Compile the Linux PPTP Server as follows:
    ./configure
    make
    make install
Thanks to Ron O'Hara who added autoconf packaging.

Launching the PPTP Server

  • You must be root to run the PPTP Server (because it launches PPPD);
  • Before running the server you should check that PPP is configured properly. Here is a sample options file that you can go through to better configure PPP (this options file was cut-n-pasted from the Linux PPP HOWTO by Robert Hart)
  • Launch the PPTP server by running './pptpd --speed x --localip x.x.x.x --remoteip x.x.x.x'. (For example: ./pptpd --speed 115200 --localip 192.168.0.234 --remoteip 192.168.0.235)
Thanks to Ron O'Hara who added support for command line options.

Launching a PPTP Linux client

  • To avoid any PPP configuration issues I run the PPTP Linux client in the following manner: 'pptp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx' where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the machine running the PPTP Linux server;
  • To terminate the PPTP session I kill the pppd process and call manager process on the client machine. The server (v0.7.32) also dies when this happens but this will be fixed soon.

Launching a PPTP Windows NT 4.0 client

  • Go to dial up networking and make a new connection.
  • The phone number is the IP address of the PPTP Linux server
  • Dial using VPN.

Processes

The PPTP Server forks a number of processes... Initially it starts a "PPTP: CTRL Connection". Once this control connection has been successfully established it launches the PPP daemon and a "PPTP: GRE-PPP/PPP-GRE Connection". Here's an example of the process table with these connections running.

769p0 S0:00PPTP: GRE-PPP/PPP-GRE Connection
770p0 S0:00PPTP: CTRL Connection
771a0 S0:00/usr/sbin/pppd /dev/ttya0 debug 38400 192.168.0.234:192.168.0.235

Debugging

Debug messages from the server can be logged to a file. This default log file is called "./pptp.log" and can be changed by modifying the defines in "debug.h". You can also enable PPP debugging on the server by uncommenting 'debug' in the options file which should be located in /etc/ppp.
Email: Matthew Ramsay




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Last Updated: 8 April, 1999